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Friday, July 1, 2011

My Vacation 2011: #3 Pinto Art Museum & The Silangan Gardens

Entrance to Silangan Gardens/ Pinto Art Museum.

A few days before my flight back to Jeddah, on Fathers Day, me and my daughter Maria went to the Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo City, which is basically a stone throw away from where we live. We didn't even know that the place even existed until that day. I only heard about this place when I was watching a travel program on TFC when I was here in Saudi Arabia before I went on my vacation. We searched the internet about this place and how to get there. It turned out that getting there is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

The entrance fee is 100 Pesos per person, but students get discount. From the entrance they will give you a pamphlet which tells about the place, its history and that it officially opened on December 5, 2010, just late last year. So it's fairly new. The place is owned by Dr.Joven Cuanang and the arts displayed in the museum are all part of his collections.

I've noticed that most of the buildings inside were Mexican-inspired and go so well with their surroundings and while walking down the main concrete stair to the main art gallery, I've also noticed how beautiful their well maintained garden was. It just rained that morning so everything around was wet and the air smelled so fresh with all those plants, grass and trees (sigh.). We were also hearing a lot of low pitch sounds, more like the moo of a cow, and we later learned that they were frogs having "you know what" with their partners. And we thought it's part of the exhibit.LOL!

"Karnabal" by Salingpusa (click picture to enlarge).

Anyway, upon entering the art gallery, a very huge painting sort of welcomed us. It was called "Karnabal", it was painted by several artists collectively called "Salingpusa", a group of successful newbie artists in the world of art. Some of them are Emmanuel Garibay, Elmer Borlongan, Mark Justiniani, Ronald Ventura, Karen Flores, Winner Jumalon and more. It's a mind-boggling depiction of a carnival in your dream (or nightmare). At the center, you'll see a carousel, although you're not gonna notice it at first. You really have to sit down and contemplate on the bench in front of it to see it. Believe me you'll see more than just a carousel.

There were also paintings by those individual painters, but I really love Emmanuel Garibay's paintings the most. His paintings usually depict everyday scenes from a poor man's point of view. A sort of dark satire of typical Filipino life. Maria and I really enjoyed the gallery. I even told her to write the names of the artists so that when get back home, we could look them up on the internet.

After walking around and seeing the paintings that led us to the museum shop, we proceeded to the restaurant which was located at yet another gallery. I must say, the food and the service there was amazing, even the chef came to us and asked us if we loved the food. The ambiance was perfect, my eyes cannot stop wandering around while having lunch because of the wonderful and amazing paintings that were displayed there. The name of the restaurant is (Laya) Earth Cafe.

After wolfing down our lunch, Maria and I went to roam around the garden. It was as amazing as the gallery. There's a lot of trails that lead to a place that really surprised us, almost like a secret garden. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I told Maria to refrain from talking loud because others might hear us and ruin our peaceful moments there. There were a lot of ponds (with quite a lot of frogs I must say!) The place was incredible.

Then we went to the house where the owner lives. It's like an open house, everybody can take a peek into it. But we hesitated to really venture inside because we could sense people are abuzz that time, there was the owner Dr. Cuanang with his foreign guests, so we decided not to get in.

Maria and I just can't stop taking pictures where ever we go. It's a shame we didn't have a picture of the two of us. It was a great and amazing experience to be there especially with my daughter. I will always cherish that special day with my daughter. Too bad my other daughter Celina can't go with us that day.

I really recommend this place to all art lovers, but please do not bring small, noisy and unruly children that don't know anything about art, unless you can control them from doing something stupid like touching the exhibits. The place is not a playground.

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